DIY Wedding Project

The biggest DIY project of my life has finally arrived! I'm recently engaged, and have started collecting ideas for the big day.

Fiance and I picked a date for May 2016. It seems like it's so far away, but there was a method to the madness. I will be graduating in March 2015, so then it will be just over a year until the wedding. That way, I can use this down time to focus on finishing my last semester and a half of school. Then we can really start planning!

In the mean time, I can't act like nothing happened! My Pinterest has been filling up with wedding projects that I can't wait to start.

Because I have so much time to plan, I figured that leaves me plenty of time to be a DIY bride! I love these kinds of projects, so why buy everything already made, when I can personalize and make the day really mine! :)

The colors I've picked for the big day are purple and silver. If glitter was a color, that would be one of my choices. I'm envisioning a classic black and white wedding, with splashes of purple and glittery things.

On my list so far for DIY projects includes flower girl dresses, center pieces, the invitations, bridesmaid gifts, and a few fun things for myself along the way.

The flower girl dresses can be cute and easy, using tulle fabric for a tutu style dress. I'm thinking sparkly white tulle for the skirt, a black sash around the middle, and some pretty purple and silver flowers clipped to the sash.

A matching headband would be adorable too! :)

I can't wait to get started on some of these ideas... but school first!

DIY Christmas Decor Gift Basket

I don't know about you, but I LOVE making homemade gifts... especially Christmas gifts. Last year, my younger sister asked for some Christmas decorations so she and her new husband can decorate their new abode. Instead of spending a ton of money on very little, I cranked some ideas out of Le Studio, and made an awesome gift basket full of homemade Christmas decorations. 

I started with a big, green bucket that I had laying around. Barely used. Made it all nice and shiny, and slapped a sparkly, red bow on the front. 

I went to the dollar store and picked up a couple of frames, for the printables I had either found online or made myself. One was a cute saying with some Christmas clip art, the other a Santa Key poem I found somewhere online. Other items from the dollar store included fillers such as a bell, cookie cutters and some window clings.

For the DIY pieces:

• Apple Pie Moonshine
• I used a mason jar with a pretty ribbon wrapped around it, and a cute sticker that says "Homemade with <3"
• A Cookie-in-a-Jar Recipe
• Hand painted Christmas bulbs
• I painted adorable penguins with pink and blue scarves on the outside of them.
• I used white glitter inside the bulb as snow, and tied a blue and pink ribbon on each.
• Sock Snowmen
• These were so fun to make! I used some new, clean socks, rice, and some spare buttons I had laying around. I even made some for myself!
• Wedding Invitation Bulb
• I made their wedding invitations, so I had an extra printed. I cut the invite into small strips, curled them and placed them inside the bulb. 
• I added a small silver heart charm and some gold ribbon to the top of the bulb.
• Snowman refrigerator magnet set
• By using Microsoft Word, some clip art and some light magnets, I created a big snowman for the front door or refrigerator. 
• I printed a large picture of each piece: coal eyes, mouth, carrot nose, a wooden pipe, a two piece scarf, big coal buttons, and a three piece top hat with mistletoe. 
• I cut out all of the printed pieces and laminated them so they'd last.
• I used some crazy glue and light magnets from Michael's. 
• For the presentation, I used a large white envelope and printed a border and picture of the snowman altogether on the front.
• Here's a DIY link if you want to use construction paper instead of the printer.

Everything was so much fun to make!

To make sure everything looked nice in the basket, I used some small foam blocks on the bottom, to boost everything up a bit. I used all kinds of tissue paper between the foam and the gifts.

She really loved her homemade decorations. :)

I did have pictures of everything while I was making them, and finished products of each. So sad that I lost almost all of my pictures when I was switching between an old and a new laptop. Good thing I sent this picture to my mom when I was done! It would have been lost for good like the others!

Happy Birthday to Me! Meet my new Cricut Explore!

I celebrated my 24th birthday a few weeks ago, and it totally slipped my mind that I should show off my new crafting tool!

My fiance bought me a Cricut Explore, so I can enter a whole new world of crafting. I had been eyeballing it for a while, so intrigued by what it can do. I was so happy when I opened it!

Let me tell you though.. it is intimidating. I thought I'd be all over this thing, cutting out little craft pieces right away. I haven't been able to properly cut anything yet.

The set up for this machine requires connecting to the computer, cutting some samples and making sure everything lines up correctly. Well, it said it couldn't connect to my laptop, then it wouldn't cut on the right lines, now I can't figure out how to cut my own image.

I started watching some YouTube videos on how to use this beast. I have a lot of learning to do!

The first thing I wanted to make with the Cricut is a homemade Christmas present for my mom. Awe. I'm going to cut out the state outlines for Arkansas, Texas, Florida and Michigan, and stick them each to a coffee mug. Then I'm going to paint a dashed line, connecting each of the states from one cup to the next. It's a way of connecting all of her kids in a way... my mom lives in Arkansas, one sister in Texas, my grandmother in Florida, and the rest of us in Michigan. I thought it was a cute idea.

If I can figure out how to cut my vinyl, I'll show a picture of the cups next week! :)

Halloween Rice Krispy Treats Recipe

For my Halloween party, I decided to treat my guests to a childhood favorite. I bought a box of individually wrapped Rice Krispy Treats, and dipped them in chocolate. People love these, and it didn't take me forever to make the batch from scratch and cut perfect shapes. It's a huge time saver if you want the rectangle shape... for other shapes, I buy a huge block of the krispy treats from a cake shop or Target, and use a cookie cutter for my shapes (I think my next attempt will be Christmas trees!).

I started by taking all of the treats out of their packages, and putting them on a wax paper lined cookie sheet. I stuck a popsicle stick into each treat, as a handle.

I like using a glass bowl and microwave instead of a double boiler. If you're using a microwave, make sure you change to half power, as to not burn the chocolate. Start with one minute in the microwave, then stir. After that, microwave for 30 seconds at a time and stir until melted all the way through. As soon as the chocolate is done, start dipping the treats into the bowl. I like dipping half way, tapping the treat on the side of the bowl, then scrap the back of the treat. I added sprinkles after each is dipped. Waiting too long will allow the chocolate to harden, then sprinkles won't stick.


I used regular and white chocolate for alternating colors. Meijer was out of stock on the orange chocolate, so I used some food coloring. They made a nice tablescape decoration, as well as a yummy treat! I took the leftovers to work, and everyone loved them. They're my favorite treat. :)

The cupcakes were from the Meijer bakery. They were good too. I usually bake my own, but it saved a lot of time buying them.

For the party favors, I found some cute coffee mugs on a swap site (like Craigslist, but a group on Facebook). I put some shredded paper stuffing into the bottom of each, added a wrapped rice kripy treat, then topped each with some Hershey kisses. Everyone loved this!

Halloween Rice Krispy Treats


Ingredients:
Sheet or individually wrapped rice krispy treats
Popsicle sticks or decorative paper straws
Wilton's melting chocolate (I find that one bag of chocolate will cover about 10 treats)

Supplies:
Wax paper
Glass bowl (or double boiler)
Cellophane treat bags
Twist ties or ribbon
Cookie sheet

Directions:

• Line the cookie sheet with wax paper, so the treats do not stick. 
• Unwrap each treat and place on the wax paper. 
• Insert a popsicle stick or paper straw through the top of the treat.
• Once this is done, empty the melting chocolate in the glass bowl. I prefer using the microwave instead of a double broiler. 
• Set the microwave at half power, and start heating the chocolate for one minute. Stir, then continue at 30 second intervals until melted all the way through. If you heat too much, it will become a chunky mess. 
• Using the stick as a handle, dip the treat about half way into the chocolate (or fully, your preference). Tap on the side of the bowl, scraping the back side if you wish. Place on the wax paper. 
• After dipping each treat, add sprinkles if you would like. This should be done before the chocolate begins to harden.
• After all treats have been dipped, I like to put the cookie sheet of treats in the refrigerator to chill. 
• When the chocolate has harden, put each treat into a plastic bag and seal with a twist tie or ribbon.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween Yard Decorations

I finally had a nice day out to decorate my tiny little garden for Halloween. We live in an apartment, but the leasing office was nice enough to let us have a garden outside our dining room window. Now that my green peppers, jalapenos and chili peppers have died off, time to switch gears!

First, I had to make the gravestones. Why buy them when they're so easy to make? Stores do have really creepy designs, but I was going more for whismy. I used some thin, cheap foam that I had leftover from a summer project. Used a sharpie for the outline, cut away and painted it all in. I could have added some dimension by carving into the stones, but the foam was way too thin for that.

I also made a sign for the garden, that I think is adorable. I had an extra piece of molding that I bought from Home Depot (used to frame my bathroom mirror). Bought some flat planks of scrap wood from Michael's, and started painting. After I nailed all the pieces together, I coated the whole sign with a few coats of mod podge. Hoping that will protect from the elements a bit. So far so good!

Voila! My Nightmare Before Christmas graveyard. I bought the plastic fence pieces from the Dollar General... added some mini pumpkins and some spider webs. Since I took the picture, I added another tall pumpkin in the corner.

The Halloween party at my place is this weekend. I hope everyone likes my decorations!

Next week's blog post will show off the rest of my decorations through out the apartment, where to buy them or how to make them!

Have a great weekend!

Wine Glasses, Candles, and Pumpkins, Oh My!

October is my favorite month. There's so much I love about it... cider and donuts... pumpkins and falling leaves... decorating the house and making costumes. Halloween is almost here, so you know what I've been up to. If I can't find it, I make it.

The first decoration I made this year was a set of hand painted wine glasses. Simple, cute. Perfect for a glass of moscato d'asti while I'm reading The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. My inspiration for this set came from the adorable ribbon I had just bought from Michael's craft store (my favorite store in the world). I recently added these to my Etsy store. So far they've been dubbed a "favorite" but no sales yet. That's okay, I like them and that's all that matters, haha. 

Another little project was a pair of pillar candles that were just collecting dust. Candy corn candles! Aren't they cute? I cleaned them up a bit and took out some paint. I used some painter's tape to make a straight line between colors. If you would like to try this, I would suggest planning out the painter's tape. I painted the bottom 2/3 orange, then applied the painter's tape to create a straight line for the yellow. When I removed the tape, it removed some orange paint. I decided I liked the faded vintage look it gave the orange... I should have done the same to the yellow! I added these to my Etsy store as well, just in case anyone likes them as much as I do. For now, they look nice on my new dining room buffet table with the rest of my decorations. 

Finally, I decided to carve a pumpkin just a little different than the usual. Last year I had about ten pumpkins that I was given from work (cute little gift from management for the fall). The boyfriend and I carved or painted all of them, and left them out on our apartment patio. That was a pain in the butt to clean up after a few weeks of rain. So I limited myself to one or two pumpkins, and this is what I did (pictured right). I decided to create a lovely little carving for the blog! Charming Creations, where fun is the motivation. That needs some work. 

In the picture you can see my fake green apples. Yea, fake. I'm planning on painting one of them to look like the Snow White poison apple. Which my sister corrected me by reminding me that Snow White's apple was red. I like the green better. 

So what are you guys up to for Halloween? Carving pumpkins, bobbing for apples, trick or treating with the little ones? Comment below and share your favorite Halloween activities or traditions. I've love to hear about them!

Allow me to introduce myself...

You may call me Melissa... or Missi. Almost twenty-four years old. Artist. Crafter. Avid DIYer.

I'm in my last year of business school at Walsh College. When I'm finished, I'll have a BBA in Business Management.

I ask myself all the time, what's an artist doing at a business school? Well, College for Creative Studies was out of my price range. The idea is that the business degree might be able to help me with my artistic hobbies, and maybe even turn it into a real job one day. A girl can dream.

Because college and an office job was sucking the life out of me, I decided I needed a creative outlet. Or I was going to go mad.

When I moved into my first apartment, I turned my second bedroom into an office. I call it Le Studio. As it went from an unorganized storage room to a studio, I went from just college student to amateur entrepreneur. I didn't just want to make and paint things for myself in Le Studio. I wanted to share my ideas. What better way to share my ideas than with a blog?

This is probably the fifth blog that I've started. 

Onward! Into the over saturated world of bloggers! I'm going to need to work on my blogging and artist skills if I want to stand out in this world. Let's hope the fifth time is a charm.

Speaking of charm!

I started a small business out of Le Studio. I called it Charming Creations, and decided it would be a Boutique. I started with a Facebook fan page  to spread the word of my creations.

Reviewing my projects, I think I need to practice painting. 

So what prompted this business idea? I've always had fun making cakes, cupcakes, invitations and custom paintings for friends and family. They knew I loved it. I was asked to paint a custom wine glass for a 21st birthday. Okay, cool. That was fun. The ladies loved it. They instantly suggested that I create more and sell them online.

And just like that, Charming Creations was born.